Amidst all of the short sales and foreclosures I'm dealing with in San Diego, I've found I must keep my stamina up and running, literally. After reading a fellow agent's blog recently about how she was a competitive swimmer in her younger days and just recently got back in the pool to train. Her session was cut short due to lack of stamina - she wasn't training at all. I too at one time was a much better athlete than I am now. Of course we can be our own worst critics, but 2 kids, a handful of short sales, a handful of buyers, a bad (or good, depending on who you ask) market and finding one's voice via blogging can keep one busy enough.

I used to run quite a bit, trained on a bicycle with friends that trained for triathlons but never competed myself, surfed, bodysurfed (and not just little stuff but Hawaii Five-O opening scene stuff) and weight trained in the gym for many years. As adulthood progresses, time is less available.

Unless you make the conscious effort like my fellow agent last week and I did last November, some things might not change. I commend her for her effort since it's tough to start anything from ground zero, at least for me it is. I had a similar episode on a treadmill the week before Thanksgiving. I walked for 10 minutes and ran 1.5 miles at a 10:15 pace, then walked for another 10 minutes. I NEARLY PUKED, FOLKS! You see the last time I ran before that was the last physical agility test with my old Navy squadron before I chose to join the inactive reserves, back in October '06, about 2 years worth of inactivity. The most I had done since then was maybe surf once a month in the off season and three times a month during spring, summer and fall. But there was no cross-training to improve my stamina or keep my paddling/sprinting muscles in tune.

Since Thanksgiving I'm up to a solid 5 miles per day, 4 times per week at a pace of 9:34 per mile, non-stop not including a walking warm up or cool down and the kicker, haven't felt the need to toss my cookies since my third or fourth run. It took 3 months to get back to this level. Okay so I'm not blazing fast but heck, slow and steady wins the race, right? Now I'm not training to compete but I feel better than I have in years plus I'm 10 lbs lighter than a few months ago, clothes fit better and my wife digs me...

So whether it's running, swimming, blogging, prospecting, showing more homes, or going on more listing presentations, the answer to the opening question of "how do you eat an elephant?" is, one bite at a time. For those of you doin' it, whatever it is, kudos, keep going. For those thinking about it, get goin'!

Cheers,

Marvin